NCAA MEN'S FINAL FOUR

March 28, 1999

Jim Calhoun

COACH JIM CALHOUN: That's a good point. Carrawell is clearly a terrific defender, he has got size, quickness. He's very physical. He does it much different than Ricky does it. But tomorrow night, an opportunity, if I was to guess, Ricky Moore will be playing against William Avery, who I think is as good a point guard as anyone. I can give you four or five other guys. Avery, I saw him as a sophomore. I went down to see Ricky, and William Avery had 37 points. You'll see Ricky at times playing William Avery. And you'll also see Carrawell playing Hamilton. So you'll have a chance to see certainly up close and personal not if they're good defenders because they're both magnificent defenders, but they'll both have opportunities tomorrow night to show the great defensive players they are.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: He's Polish. I'm Irish. I think his statement, I heard him the other night say something to the effect of sometimes wrong but never in doubt. And I kind of feel the same way about my decisions at times, which means we're both probably very stubborn about what we do. But clearly, I got to know Mike, Coach Bobby Knight, guys in eastern basketball, going up to West Point clinics when Mike was a player there those last couple years. I was a 23-year-old high school coach taking my team up to West Point at clinics Bob Nike was running. Mike became the Head Coach at West Point, I started coaching against Michael when he was at West Point. I had Perry Moss, he had terrific players, great football players and et cetera. I think as far as our personalties, I think we're two entirely different people but probably both are as passionate. I think the thing about Mike Krzyzewski, I only can talk about Michael, he's probably the coach for our generation. Dean Smith is the guy who I learned a great deal from. John Thompson, Eddie Sutton, who I think is the master of X and Os. But for our generation, for those folks who came out and the head coach 27 years, I think Mike's in the same vintage ballpark, 24, 25 years, I think he's the coach for our generation. I think he's identified such things as what a program is, class, probably competitiveness, preparation, we've seen it on his team. In many ways, conceptually he's done things other coaches don't do. For example, they don't run a lot of sets, run a lot of concepts against you. I think he's the coach of our generation. I truly believe that. I think he's carried that off. My additional admiration for him is the fact that he's found time to be an incredible member of the NABC and Coaches Association, USA Basketball and done many, many other things to try to make sure with his incredible, you know, when people talk about Final Fours, they really talk about Mike Krzyzewski and what he's done in this recent generation. And clearly, to take time as he has, I think some of us who have known Michael, I don't consider myself a dear friend, I consider myself a friend. He has very close friends, I'm not one of them just because of where we are, et cetera. But I clearly believe that he's taken time out to try to make sure that basketball is better. And for a guy who was -- once again, I consider the coach of our generation to do that, maybe it even reemphasizes that he is the coach of our generation.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Yeah, he weighs three more pounds, so the whole physical thing didn't really work out that well. When he broke his foot, he's one of those kids -- I wish it could happen to me a little bit, when he doesn't work out, he loses weight. I don't find that happening in my life. Clearly he is a more mature person. Last year when he was handled physically at times, as the season progressed, he had a magnificent season, Big East Player of the Year, he didn't react as well as he should have. Now if you're going to hand check him, he's going to try to initiate and go by you. His maturity as far as being happy within himself even when he's not playing well is another point in the maturational process. I think for us, when Ray Allen left us his junior year, he was ready to play in the NBA. And sometimes kids will leave early and are not ready. Clearly I felt Rich could play in the NBA eventually, but I didn't think he was ready mentally as well as physically. I think when people talk about his body type, I was fortunate enough to coach, God rest his soul, Reggie Lewis, and Reggie Lewis can score at any level he ever played at and think about Rich Hamilton, he went over 2,000 points yesterday. We had Donyell Marshall, Ray Allen, Chris Sutton, the best scorer we've ever had for three years far and away; second best scorer in the history of the school is Richard Hamilton. I think the mental aspect is the most single important thing. And, lastly, I wanted to enjoy coaching him. He's going to make money playing basketball. He's going to have a long basketball year, if he doesn't, he's a terrific student and really enjoys college. That's a nice thing to be able to do.

COACH JIM O'BRIEN: What happens, almost all of us in college basketball go into droughts. We go into droughts very simply because most folks don't have enough people that can score points or make plays enough to make others score points. Duke, most times on the court, has five guys that can make plays. And it puts a constant pressure on you. You're playing great defense and you make your rotations properly, you know, you know that as we look through our scouting program, you need to be three feet, five feet off him to get help, there isn't much about Duke which puts great pressure. I would never negate the fact that they come up and do a great job of trying to make you play one-on-one basketball. Because of the ball pressure they don't give as much help as other teams except when you get to the lane, they make you and take your offense. They make you play a different kind of game than you like to play. I clearly think the number one thing is the number of points they put on the board. Second thing, clearly they could really defend you.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: I'm so used to having Connecticut guys having so many inches to fill, I'm so used to trying to help if I can. But I think when I got to Connecticut and started asking Howie Dickman (phonetic spelling), who has an awful lot for us being here, who we're involved with. He said we're involved with this kid in Jersey. They said he's probably the sixth or seventh best player in Jersey. Then we went down to New York and probably 10th there. Then we went to Phillie and other places, I found out we were recruiting the 8, 7, 6 -- 10 best players in that area. I said we're going to have to coach them up a lot. Physically, they are the kind of kids that are going to matchup in our area. We made a conscious decision to try to get the best athlete no matter where you are, and quite frankly, I've been very candid about this, we saw the Big East first and UCONN second when I came to UCONN. No ifs, ands or buts, maybe is about it. I think what we try to do is tell kids would you like to play against Reggie Williams, Alonzo Mourning, would you like to play in the Carrier Dome, not in Syracuse, but would you like to play in the Big East. When I came in '86 I had advantages. We had just had three teams in the Final Four, a National Championship in Georgetown next Villanova second. We were the most publicized league in America. We called a kid up, tell me what leagues you like. I love the Big East, I like Georgetown an awful lot. Have you talked to Coach Thompson. No. Good. (Laughter) Now, and we went from there. That's when we expanded. Then we get asked over the years how did you get Travis Knight out of Salt Lake City, Utah, Brian Fair out of Arizona, Kevin Ollie out of L.A. I said we called them on the phone. A lot of people on our league, except John by going to Louisiana, most people didn't want to stretch much beyond the East. We felt we had many more advantages, quite frankly. We at one time had one Connecticut kid and three Louisiana kids on our team. We had Eric Hayward, Covington Cormier, Kirk King on our basketball team and one Connecticut kid. One of the reasons I did come to Connecticut was because we had such a great influx, your alma mater took some, Jay Murphy, Michael Evans and John Bagley, Villanova was taking some of the other ones, Charles Smith, Harold Pressley. One of the reasons I thought we had a great recruiting base, when we got there, Wes Matthews and some of those guys were gone. The first key recruit we got was probably Chris Smith locally and later on Scottie Burrell and some of the in-state kids. Nationally, I have to say that Donyell Marshall was a key sign, he became a national recruit in his senior year.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: You know, we have that fun. We've done things, try to get the kids around, tried everything humanly possible to make this a fun experience. We had to shut the door off points in time. We got here Wednesday night and Thursday it was a day which we spent out doing things together, went to the hoop fest, there were kids walking around, I wanted to get a Final Four experience for them. Do all the things I possibly could. But I think that as we got into Friday, into the quote "business day," that the kids wanted to play on Monday. The only way we knew how to go about doing that was to get ourselves, much like a road game, back into it. Today we're going to relax a little bit, save some energy, our practice will be light. We'll go over conceptually a lot of things we need to do against Duke; a delicate balance between enjoying themselves. There's two great moments here, a moment to win a National Championship and we don't want to do anything to take that away. But also a moment for these kids to sit up here, we're kidding about all the media coming in afterwards. I said if the worst things that happens in your lifetime is people have enough interest to ask you questions and publish your answers, you're going to have a very successful life. Almost relish what's happening to you. For some of these kids, they don't understand this all now, it's a tremendous moment in their life. It will be a highlight. I want to make sure that they truly enjoy that.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Younger coaches probably would. I think the old coaches know, as I know, that in 1990, when Christian Laettner made a shot against us, when we played a great UCLA team, or missed two foul shots or all the things that happen along the way, everybody who has ever been here or hasn't been here realizes an awful lot of it is chance, circumstances and fate and some very good playing. And I truly believe that coaches treat coaches like -- especially guys who have been around a little more, the one thing that's been the most moving thing for me personally has been the fact of how much coaches have just said -- and I think more guys that have the hair getting to be the color of mine, which is gray -- just some happiness for you. I think that's very moving, some of the guys sent E-mails, phone calls, I've seen while I've been here. I think we all kind of, at least in points in time, root for each other. But then you become a regular schmuck. You know, you do. You know, quite frankly, I mean I know I can coach. There's tremendous guys. I mention Eddie Sutton, I think he's one of the two or three best basketball coaches of our generation. An incredible basketball coach. So if Eddie Sutton came up to me and said -- I haven't seen Eddie, I might see him tonight -- you know, I really like the way you coach this team, that means a great deal to me. That would mean a great deal to me. But I think all of us understand the fate and all the other circumstances that allow you to get here. And so I don't know if -- I think the younger coaches might be more impressed by it, but I think the older coaches know that fate has a way of sometimes being incredibly gracious and kind to you, and also sometimes very cruel to you. I think we all have to deal with that in our profession.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: I think they were going to make that game in the Great Eight. We heard that we were going to play them in the Great Eight. Eventually, I think they played Michigan State, I believe it was. We had Michigan State ourselves, we had Stanford. So we had already scheduled two of the top four teams in the country, Stanford and Michigan State, and probably thought playing Duke -- we thought three of the top five, we were won of those, that makes four, we were to play, you know, three of the top four teams in the country, ourselves being included. That game just never came about. But, you know, at this point, I kind of wish we had played them to some degree earlier in the season. I do think that you have a feel about a team, good or bad, and get a better understanding the next time you play them. But I thought we were going to play them in the Great Eight; it just didn't work out.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, you know, I think it goes back. I think back in 1964 or 5, UCONN had a great win over Princeton and the ability gradually at that time escalated the school to regions, where they had never gone before. Then they faced Duke and I believe the school was rather large. So they doused Connecticut's hopes. And in 1990, as great a person Mike Krzyzewski is, there are some people in Connecticut who don't truly like him, you know. (Laughter) They're never going to forgive him for Christian shooting that shot. I always remember walking in to mass the next day and the priest said at least he had the right first name. So they've broken our hearts. The next year we had a tough physical game with them. They beat us by 14 points. It wasn't a blowout, but it was by the way they played. You couldn't make a move. It was a terrific basketball team, Grant Hill, Christian, Bobby and so on. Quite frankly, in my opinion, they've been the epitome after Kentucky, or probably with Kentucky, or tomorrow night if they're fortunate enough to beat us, the best team in the '90s. Clearly, they've broken our hearts a couple times. Maybe, just maybe, we'll have the opportunity to do a little bit of the heartbreaking in them, too. That's going to be a job.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, you know, I think it's who you are. I think if you have the answers -- in every game there's answers to questions. Do you handle pressure? William Avery. Do you have an inside power game? Elton Brand. If they pack it, can you shoot it over the top? I'll start with Langdon and keep on going. Can you penetrate if they play up, pressure the ball? Carrawell, Maggette, Avery. Defensively, how do we match up size-wise? They're a bit bigger than we are. So they answer an awful lot of questions. Our job probably would be to try to find the most efficient ways in which we can disrupt them. I told our kids last night, they're a great basketball team. We're going to have to play -- we're going to have to get all the other points. That means two of our loose balls we saw Ricky Moore get yesterday, we're going to have to get five or six of those. No second shots, all those other things. But I think also in preparing for us you have to work something out. We do a good job. Between pressure, traps, between some of the way we run people on screens, I think they're going to have to -- they're going to have to work very hard. We're going to have to work hard to beat Duke, and I certainly hope they're going to have to prepare for us. By simplistic, play great, great defense and then play conceptually an offense with certainly one of the finest teams I've seen them in the past decade.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Mostly guys in the media ask me not to talk in detail. (Laughter)

COACH JIM CALHOUN: I understand that. It's all about inches. I played basketball like a lot of guys, went to college, thought I was a much better player than I was, so I do share something with all my kids. And tried out and was cut, like a lot of guys, from playing professionally. I had a chance to go to Europe. I didn't know what I was going to do. I had an opportunity to go back and start working and get a Master's Degree. I didn't really think I was going to coach. I didn't think about it. The moment I walked into a gym, I was 22 years of age, put a whistle on my neck, I knew that I could combine things I loved. I love the game. I could compete. I can give something to kids. Because a guy named Fred Herget, when my dad died at 15, was my high school coach. He was the only person sitting in my home the day he died, who was the most profound influence after my family on my life, was my high school basketball coach. There was insight, maybe something that had inspired me, but he changed and helped change my life and hit me directly. From that moment I put that whistle around my neck at 22, 23 years of age, I thought this could be a great thing. I could stay with a game I love. I could compete and I could make a difference with kids. From that point, I started coaching and I was a high school coach for four years and was fortunate enough at 29 to become a Head Coach at Maltese University (phonetic spelling) in Boston.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Yeah, you know, I was out in San Diego, L.A., St. Louis, my first three. I'm using my first three, L.A., St. Louis and then San Diego. I remember in San Diego somebody giving me two tickets to the game. I remember people complaining about the NABC Banquet, which will be packed tonight. You couldn't get a ticket for it because everybody was playing golf, going to the beach, all the different things that they were doing. The Magic game and Larry game I was at. I attended every single Final Four except one in the past 28 years. Clearly, it was a special moment for college basketball. I always said I believe truly it has changed the perception of what this tournament has meant. I think from a real good -- it's been 80 percent incredible and 90 to 100 percent great for college basketball. It gave college basketball a three-week window to tell literally hundreds and hundreds of great, great stories about student athletes, about programs, about schools and about so many different things. And it's amazing how that's come in a 20-year period where now, quite frankly, it dominates all the media, the minds, people who don't even know much about college basketball into a three-week period. My only complaint as a coach is many times three weeks in March, the tournaments -- that's not a personal thing. That's watching my fellow coaches who have advanced to the tournament or not and being jealous about that. As I've said a number of different times, we didn't make up all the rules. All of us in college basketball have greatly benefited from these three weeks, whether it be financial, odd jobs, our university is entirely different because of what's happened in this March Madness. It's a special thing that has made our sport into something very, very special. It's phenomenal what happened. I still remember St. Louis, they were telling people you have to get to the game. Everybody stayed in the hotel, it was lousy weather. I remember those early years being so much different than what it is now. It's absolutely phenomenal. You went and saw some basketball games, great coaches, great players. But it went from a game to an event.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Yeah, I didn't go to the Final Four after we lost to Mississippi State.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: This group, as you know, has won 65 basketball games, which is phenomenal. I just felt that they had wanted to from Greensboro, sometimes you get in that locker room after a tough, tough loss and you and I both knew after that game we lost to -- I joked about the neutral site. The moon wouldn't have made a difference. We're going to have a tough time beating a tougher team from Carolina. They beat us because they're better than us. That's why they won. That happens in sports. But I think the team's attitude was one of ours being -- the NCAA Tournament is a cruel, cruel thing. It's a wonderful thing. The elation is incredible. I've watched it through the eyes of kids. Through the eyes of my players I've watched this. I've been fortunate enough to be in a lot of tournaments. The elation is absolutely incredible. I've watched it through the eyes without knowing of them of Gonzaga, Weber State, being at Northeastern, the eyes of my kids, Perry Moss, watching those guys. But in turn, when it ends, it doesn't just slowly end. The curtain gets drawn down and the band marches on and you look up and it's like a parade that just passed through and you're kind of left to clean up. Emotionally, that's how you feel. So it's tough to put a team sometimes even back together, unless it's a young team as was last year. But it wasn't quite that feeling of the team. We started talking about it, because we knew we were young, but also the teams were led by Ricky, Khalid, Rip, et cetera, Rip when he knew what he wanted to do. The bottom line is the team clearly, clearly made his mind up. They wanted to have another opportunity to do that again with a more, better experienced basketball team. I think we set our mindset. We had trials, tribulations, Rip's flirting with the NBA, broken foot by Rip, injuries during the season but it never dissuaded our kids by any stretch of the imagination of our goal. We got injuries, kept winning. Everybody says the regular season is not that important. I guarantee you, we're sitting up here a lot because that regular season is important. We were one seed. One seed gives you some -- at least more breathing room to get to where you need to be. And so that one seed is darn important. Many times we keep minimizing that. I will tell you, guys who come from the other spots, et cetera, the life is better for you coming from that one spot. We dedicated ourselves and had people who really, truly believe in their heart and soul, we've talked about that. You heard about us talk about this being a special season. We talked about that from day one. We tried to fulfill that dream.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: I've always been for standards for eligibility, but don't think that the SATs should be used as a single determining factor for that. Princeton doesn't use them as that single determining factor; we shouldn't. You could have a 4.0 and an 810 and not be eligible to play. So when you say you have a dual factor, you don't. You can't work your way in there with a 4.0. You need to have -- there are those people who just aren't good test-takers. Bottom line is, obviously, the only problem I would see, and I see a little bit the same thing the NCAA sees, I'm against the standardized test per se. I don't have the answers. And someone who is much more well-versed than I is going to have it. But we're still going to have to maintain some standards to make sure that kids who are coming to college are prepared to be able to graduate from college.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: For Edmund Saunders it was terrific. Quite frankly, I think it's a good thing. For the kid we had sitting out this year, he had a 3.4, spoke four languages, his weakest being English. So the standardized test with a time span was too difficult for him. Not the academic work itself. He could grind it out because he's a very, very bright kid.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: We have a game we could lose. I think any time you compete, you want to win. I wouldn't really feel that we don't have something to lose, we do. It could be a lost opportunity against a great basketball team. And if we don't play up to our capabilities, it will be a lost opportunity. Will the season be a loss? No. This is an immensely successful basketball season for us. Tomorrow night we have the opportunity. The one thing we want to continue to emphasize with our kids is that we are going to take every single advantage humanly possible, all those opportunities that are presented to us. And tomorrow we and we alone have the opportunity to knock off a great, great basketball team. Do we think we can do it? Yeah. Do we know it's going to be a tremendous task? We could probably ask about 34, 33 other straight victims, it's a tremendous task. We have a lot of great people.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, I think many times, I mean, kids almost complain about my fixations with line caprice (sic), they don't know what line caprice is anymore. You do and I do. Kevin Ollie, Ricky Moore, guys who kind of epitomize what you think college basketball could, should and is about to be successful. That's those people who are willing to find someplace in your program to succeed, helping you and all their teammates successfully. So he would epitomize that clearly. I think we try to do everything every single day to have that be recognized.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: No, I'm not resigned to the fact. In these kind of situations, as you know, they involve millions of dollars now, quite frankly. You know, the decision really -- last year he asked for my input. I assume he'll probably do the same thing this year. That's what I'll have. I'll have input of what I think. You know, I'll wait till the end of the season to talk to him personally about it. But clearly he's more ready this year than he was last year. I really think the most successful players in the league are the guys who clearly get themselves most -- I think you're going to take on the biggest test of your life, guarantee you're a great player anyways, just like we prepared ourselves last night staying up to four and five in the morning. A lot of it is coaching guilt. We're going to recover that Carrawell can go by you or Avery can make a jump shot. But you have to do that. Punch yourself a little bit. But when the game is over, you feel better because you feel like you've given all you possibly have. I think the player should try to prepare himself as fully as he possibly can. Sometimes financial situations, as you know, do get in the way. Money is something that these kids can have an opportunity with. Richard, he's had two major injuries. I would never want to have him in a situation where he's sitting there in crutches or in a cast or something and have now passed on a great deal of money. I'd feel very badly about that.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, the only thing I feel right now, I just feel that we had drawn a situation, we're going to face -- I feared Gonzaga the moment I saw them. I just thought they were really, really good. But I don't feel any different, no. I mean I think that like all of us, it's like always being in the middle of it. You're so in the middle of it you don't have a chance to step back and feel any way. I did have a chance to think much more on Saturday, because, as you know, we stayed out there for ever. We celebrated like I talk. You know, we stayed out there a long time, showed a lot. All the kids were crying and it was a very emotional experience. That became very reflective. You saw me after a while start to reflect on a lot of things. By Sunday night it was shut down and we were ready to go back to basketball. That's where I am right now. I'm enjoying it. I have my family here. They're enjoying it. It's great. But I really want to make sure that we take care of the task at hand.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: We left for the Big East on a Wednesday. We missed two academic days. We didn't have to play on Wednesday, we had a by date. Secondly, we left the Big East Tournament, took our academic advisors with us. We fly tutors in. We do miss time, there's no question about that. But I think it's a tremendous burden placed upon kids. I mean sometimes what you're alluding to, the farther you go, the more difficult it is for these kids. There's a great deal of pressure. But once again, we've done everything humanly possible. We've had one ineligible player in the past eight years, but it's going to take a concerted effort. Will had given a 102 math test to two kids this afternoon, with tutors here. You have to do the best you possibly can. I do think one of the reasons we do slow down is we go four, four and two. We only take four courses during the semester, 12 semester hours. Then all of our kids are mandated to go for a summer session which is six weeks to take two more courses there. We try to lighten the load. You're asking me is it difficult for them? Clearly it is. I feel we reached our responsibility to make sure that they would keep their obligations as best as humanly possible.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: I probably need to see if they win that tomorrow night. I'll tell you, they're one of the finest basketball teams I've seen; they don't have a lot of weaknesses. And, you know, I think like anybody else, you would like to beat the best. Clearly, far and away, they're the best basketball team in college basketball. Would it be sweeter? To win a National Championship would be sweet to beat anybody. So I don't know if you need any sweetener in the pot for that.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: There's just been so many. Recently, I think the Kentucky team with the styles was -- 25 minutes was awesome and overwhelming. I thought that was one of the most impressive coaching jobs, he had so many new personalities and players. It's tough to tell a great player to play 18 minutes because he knows he's good enough to play more. Recently, I think this team, we played against -- I thought -- a great Duke team in 1991. There's been so many different teams in this game, I'm not reflective about it. But the last few years, the Kentucky and Duke teams are the two I remember in the past.

COACH JIM CALHOUN: Well, Khalid was nine years old at the time. He's a bright kid, good student, he probably knew from his geography teacher where Connecticut was. Much beyond that, knowing him, he was probably watching the game. But, you know, a lot of the kids that we talked to about the pressure of us getting to the Final Four, they just want this. They went to a Final Eight as a freshman and sophomore team. I don't think that type of thing, I don't think teams necessarily do that. I think maybe Duke and Kentucky have met so many times in the recent past. But unless you've done that with a team an awful lot, I don't think it has quite the relevance. Me personally, I'm just happy to have the opportunity to play Monday night. We're calling this big, big Monday night. The Big East, you play so many big games. This is a big, big Monday night. It's an opportunity for us to do something very special. Thank you.